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Community Cleanup Day volunteers gather for a group photo Thursday at Washington Street Park. (Tim Reeves/The Vicksburg Post)

In this file photo, Downtown Vicksburg Executive Director Kim Hopkins helps register volunteers for a Community Cleanup Day held in April of 2021. (Tim Reeves/The Vicksburg Post)

Mayor George Flaggs Jr. welcomes the volunteers who turned out Thursday to support the Community Cleanup Day. (Tim Reeves/The Vicksburg Post)

In this file photo, Visit Vicksburg Sales and Marketing Director Ashley Gatian is all smiles as more than 120 people turned out to help for a Community Cleanup Day held in April 2021. (Tim Reeves/The Vicksburg Post)

City Community Development Director Jeff Richardson picks up trash along Washington Street Thursday. (Tim Reeves/The Vicksburg Post)

The grass was a little greener along some of Vicksburg’s streets Thursday — not because gorgeous spring weather has allowed everything to bloom and grow, but because volunteers picked up hundreds of pounds of litter and trash from the roadways.

As part of Community Cleanup Day, an event to mark Earth Day, more than 120 volunteers converged on Washington Street Park early Thursday to register and get their garbage bags, reflective vests and assignments.

“Thank you all for coming out this morning. What a great way to celebrate the creation of God’s Earth and Earth Day,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said in his welcome to the volunteers. “To all of the groups who came together to organize this great idea, we want to thank you.”

The event was a partnership between the city of Vicksburg, Downtown Vicksburg, Visit Vicksburg and the Vicksburg Rotary Club.

“We were hoping for 50, but the turnout has been amazing,” Ashley Gatian, sales and marketing manager for Visit Vicksburg, said as she worked to help check in the volunteers.

Teams of volunteers were assigned stretches of heavily trafficked areas in the city, including Clay Street, Halls Ferry Road, Confederate Avenue, Mission 66, Monroe Street, Cherry Street and Pemberton Square Boulevard.

About Tim Reeves

Tim Reeves, and his wife Stephanie, are the parents of three children, Sarah Cameron, Clayton and Fin, who all attend school in the Vicksburg Warren School District. The family are members of First Baptist Church Vicksburg. Tim is involved in a number of civic and volunteer organizations including the United Way of West Central Mississippi and serves on the City of Vicksburg's Riverfront Redevelopment Committee.

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